Monday, October 10, 2016

Sexualised photos of women in sport - where do you stand?

So this is a turnup for the books - some of the world's best sports photographers at Getty Images getting together with Women's Sport Trust to promote a new way of seeing women in sport.

Curious to know what other women in combat sports think of this? It's not clear yet how much impact this will have as it only launched a few days ago but it's fair to say this blog is super-excited about the prospect.

Combat sports for women are particular battlefield in this area - we love our muscles, we feel great when we're strong but there should be line between feeling good and the pressure to fill Instagram feeds with near-naked sexual poses to get viewers and advertisers.

I'm always hesitant to write about this cause so many of my friends are caught up in this whirlwind and I don't want to critisize them - my criticism is for a system that makes those pics or videos a MUST instead of a choice.

I don't think it's wrong somehow to dress up in a sparkly dress, heels or pose in a sexy bikini. I do think it's wrong if you are doing that only because your trainer or promoter or some vague cultural feeling is pressing you to do it against your best instincts.

The more inspiring photographs like this one which cross picture-editors' desks, the more choice they have, hopefully the more often they will go for these images over the obvious honey-shot.